War of 1812: The Battle of Tippecanoe, Nov. 7, 1811

Tippecanoe pitted Shawnee warriors against American troops — and sparked the War of 1812

The Shawnee and their allies had the upper hand during the night, but daylight shifted the advantage to the American troops — and revealed as false the Prophet's assurances of warrior invulnerability to American bullets.

By:Jim Coylefeature writer, Published on Fri Nov 04 2011

PROPHET’S TOWN, INDIANA TERRITORIES—It’s Nov. 7, 1811. In the still-dark forest glade where almost 1,000 U.S. troops are camped, sentry Stephen Mars hears a rustle in the bushes and fires a rifle shot that shatters the night’s uneasy quiet.

Gen. William Henry Harrison, civil and military commander of the Indiana Territories, scrambles from his tent into the cold misty drizzle of a November morning, calling for a horse.

The Indian attack, urged on by the Shawnee chief Tenskwatawa chanting war songs from atop a boulder, is already buckling the northwestern flank of American lines.

As U.S. soldiers gather their wits and weapons, native warriors storm the tents. Some Americans are tomahawked and scalped. Other warriors take easy aim at Harrison’s men, silhouetted against flickering campfires.

A horse is brought to Harrison, who mounts and rides to the camp’s western flank.

The heaviest enemy fire comes from a stand of trees perhaps 20 paces from the camp’s front lines. The general orders the attackers dislodged.

Rifle fire blasts bark from the towering oaks. But Maj. Joseph Daveiss, jumping to Harrison’s command, is shot dead and his party driven back.

Amid the infernal din of gunfire, war whoops and the groans of the wounded, the air acrid with gun smoke and the stench of death, Harrison bellows for reinforcements.

This time, an infantry company led by Capt. Josiah Snelling routs the natives from their lethal position.

Still, Harrison frets. Few of his men have seen action before. His aim is to hold his lines until daylight, then rally a counterattack over the unfamiliar terrain.

The Battle of Tippecanoe — the showdown Harrison decided on weeks before — is on.

Most of the Ohio and eastern Indiana territories is now open to settlement. The young republic is 17 states strong. Harrison’s latest ambition is control of the rich farmland along the Wabash River.

But by 1805, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa are building a confederacy of tribes to halt white encroachment and establish an independent Indian nation.

Three years the younger, Tenskwatawa has turned from alcohol abuse to temperance, calls himself The Prophet, claims to speak for the Great Spirit, boasts supernatural powers, and urges natives to reject white culture and return to traditional ways.

Harrison publicly denounces The Prophet as an imposter and “fool who speaks not the words of the Great Spirit, but those of the devil and of the British agents.”

Harrison is less sanguine, however, about Tecumseh’s growing confederacy.

He warns that “if some decisive measures are not speedily adopted, we shall have a general combination of all tribes against us.”

In 1808, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa establish a settlement at the junction of the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers — Tippecanoe from the native Keth-tip-pe-can-nunk, a trading post once located there.

Prophet’s Town becomes headquarters of the growing Indian confederacy. As it does, Harrison negotiates another treaty, wheedling from a number of tribes three million acres straddling the Wabash.

There is one tribe Harrison does not invite to the negotiations — Tecumseh’s Shawnee.

Until mid-August 1810, Harrison does not set eyes on Tecumseh.

From his childhood in the Ohio country, Tecumseh — the name means “shooting star or “leaping panther” — carries the aura of leadership and greatness.

In his early 40s, he looks 10 years younger. He is, says one U.S. army officer, “perhaps the finest looking man I ever saw.”

Upon his return to the Wabash from travels building his confederacy, Tecumseh is outraged at Harrison’s latest land deal. He vows to keep the ceded lands from being surveyed or settled.

In August 1810, Tecumseh paddles down the Wabash to the territorial capital of Vincennes, arriving at the head of 400 warriors in 80 canoes to demand Harrison repeal the treaty.

Tecumseh says his people have “been made miserable by the white people, who are never contented, but always encroaching. . . We are determined to go no farther.”

Harrison is awed by the visitor. He tells the War Secretary “if it were not for the vicinity of the United States, (Tecumseh) would perhaps be the founder of an empire that would rival in glory that of Mexico or Peru. No difficulties deter him.”

So, as the chief heads south to build his confederacy, the governor decides on a pre-emptive strike. He will destroy Prophet’s Town and rid the frontier of the Indian menace.

Harrison leaves Vincennes on Sept. 26, 1811 with a force of 1,000 men. En route they build Fort Harrison to establish a presence in the disputed lands. On Nov. 6, cutting through swamp and dense thickets, they approach Prophet’s Town.

A party is dispatched to request a meeting. Both sides are suspicious. They agree to a council the next day. Harrison asks where his troops might camp overnight. He is directed to an oak-covered knoll.

Pleased with the site but wary of its vulnerability, Harrison sends his troops to bed fully clothed, with guns loaded and bayonets fixed.

A council house and medicine lodge face out onto prairie. Below is a large clearing for cultivation. Canoes are beached by the water.

The Prophet is under orders from Tecumseh not to engage the Americans until the Indian confederacy is strong. But the former suspects Harrison is here to attack, not talk peace.

The Indian force of perhaps 500 is no match for the American Long Knives should they attack in full battle order on the morrow. The Prophet seeks the counsel of the spirits.

He tells his warriors that, with his potions, not only will the intruders be surprised by a night attack, their gun powder will turn to sand and the Indians will be made bullet-proof.

The warriors, he says, must kill Harrison in his tent at the centre of the American camp. Then his men will scatter like rabbits.

Shortly after 4 a.m., commanded by Chiefs White-loon, Stone-eater and Winnemac, hundreds of braves advance under starless skies to the encampment’s edge.

Hearing something, Stephen Mars fires his shot.

With The Prophet’s assurances of invincibility, the warriors fight in the open rather than in customary fashion among the trees and rocks.

They buckle, but don’t breach, the American lines. Even so, U.S. casualties mount. Several times, Harrison falls back to regroup.

Then, with the light, Harrison sees that the Indians are of inferior numbers. And with dozens of bullet-riddled corpses littering the landscape, the attackers see the falseness of their Prophet.

Through the dawn, the Americans turn the tide. Harrison’s cavalry counterattacks on the Indian flanks. Soon, the warriors are in retreat through marshland, back to Prophet’s Town.

The Americans fear another attack — or Tecumseh’s arrival — and fortify their camp. They tend their wounded, bury their dead. They venture out to scalp Indian corpses left behind.

The next day, the Americans march on Prophet’s Town. They find it deserted. Large quantities of corn, some hogs and domestic fowl are a boon to the famished army. The settlement is looted and torched.

And, with the Battle of Tippecanoe, lasting just over two hours, the course of history is changed.

The Americans tally yet another grievance against the former mother country, accusing Britain of arming and agitating the Indians.

Tecumseh is driven into British arms, swearing “eternal hatred” of the Americans.

The fuse to the War of 1812 is lit.

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